The Divine Approval Of Faithfulness

But what is it that brings out this divine approval? 'I am going to make them know that I have loved thee'.

There is a partiality of God - not just for persons, for people, as such; it is not a selectiveness among people which draws out His partiality.

But there is a partiality of the Lord towards faithfulness itself.

It is that which draws out this word, "I have loved thee".

I am sure it must have been very heartening to the saints at Philadelphia to get a message like that.

It must almost have startled them in their difficulties, in everything that seemed to say that the Lord was not with them and was not prospering them.

There is so much that is against them; there are so many difficulties.

Then suddenly a letter arrives, and in it the Lord says: "I have loved thee".

Almost startling! Why?

Here are the oppressed saints at Philadelphia, and the Lord says, "thou hast a little power".

They themselves are more conscious of weakness than of power, seeming to be very much weaker than otherwise, and yet there is that there which speaks of the Lord, something that the Lord can light upon and say...

In all your consciousness of weakness, in the seeming overwhelming insufficiency, there is that there which is My foothold, which speaks of Me'.

Thou hast a little power, and didst keep my word...

You have been faithful to My revealed thoughts and mind...

And didst not deny my name - the Name of absolute supremacy and honour and glory... 

And "didst keep the word of my patience".

~T. Austin Sparks